Protesters and Police Clash

Their is an uneasiness in the air again. On Tuesday protesters were out again protesting Spain´s austerity measures, but it wasn't the brawl bash that happened last time. In fact, its been a month since the notorious and notoriously down-played September 25th protests happened where Spaniards surrounded Parliament in order to make known their frustrations about the current economic situation and the ineptitude of politicians. Their frustrations where met with police brutality late in the night. Now, as I was newly arrived to Madrid, I hadn't really been aware that there had been protests scheduled for Sept. 25th. Someone had mentioned them in passing at choir practice that night. Still, I was unaware of the severity of the clash until I saw footage of it on the news the next day. Yet, even the main news oulet made it seem only like a tense confrontation. It wasn't until I saw more footage on a Dateline/Nightline/20/20-ish Spanish program when my whole body tensed up upon seeing the images. Of course, places like Syria have it tremendously worse off right now, but I guess the fact that I am living in the same city where this brutality occurred changed my reaction. Not to mention, several policemen had entered the Atocha metro station, which I frequent quite a bit, and opened fire in the inside of the station for no apparent reason other than to scare away protesters who were already leaving the area. And once inside, the police confused protesters with passengers. In the below video they blatantly harass civilians and break a journalist's camera. Talk about a disgusting abuse of power authority.

One interesting thing is how the NY Times got the number wrong on how many people had been hurt; 10 people arrested and 6 injured versus 26 arrested and 64 injured: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/world/europe/protests-continue-in-spain.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

Here is an article in Spanish with the accurate numbers and very detailed account of what happened: http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/1597579/0/25-S/directo/rodea-el-congreso/ 

Police in Atocha Metro Station: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QVqOIU7NEI&NR=1&feature=endscreen

More later.